Ways of Coming Home
by deaka
Summary: Luke & Mara oneshot, set a few years after Vision of the Future. Luke waits to greet Mara on her return to Coruscant.


**Ways of Coming Home**

It was late in the evening in the shadows of the Jedi Temple when Luke Skywalker felt his wife's presence, a faint tickle in his peripheral awareness. He set aside the report he'd been working on, leaning back in his chair. The sensation didn't feel close, yet.

Luke twirled his lightpen absently, and looked through the window over the spires of Coruscant. His comlink chirped.

He was already reaching for it. "Hey," he said.

"Hi," she said on the other end, her voice faintly distorted by the transit through atmosphere. He pictured her in the forward area of the ship he'd given her, leaning back in the pilot's chair, legs crossed, head tilted slightly to the left. He smiled. She said, "Expecting a call?"

"Only you."

"Hm." A pause; he thought she might be swinging around to gaze down at the planet. "You're still at work, aren't you?"

"Maybe."

She sighed. "I go away, you turn into a workaholic."

He smiled again, his gaze drifting to the window. A beam of light from a nearby building shone directly into the sky from between darkened buildings. "Guess you'll have to hang around a bit, give me something else to do."

"I guess I will." He heard faint clicks, imagined her fingers moving deftly over the controls, preparing for atmospheric entry. "Stay there; I'll meet you."

"See you soon," he promised, and keyed the comlink off.

The report was waiting where he'd set it on his desk. It could keep waiting, he decided. He stood and crossed to the window, watching airspeeders stream by in a ribbon of blurred light. Pinpricks gleamed the sky high above, not stars but ships moving through the atmosphere, taking off or coming in to land.

Fifteen minutes passed. The sky darkened to complete night – night as complete as it could be on Coruscant, with its planet-wide sea of lights and pale-horizoned sky. He closed his eyes, listened with the Force, and opened his eyes.

He left the room, heading down through the layers of the Temple. The residential area, over in the east wing, would be warmly lit now, full of voices and the smell of the dinner meal. These floors, the offices and the sparring rooms and the conference areas, were silent and dark.

He reached the main entrance hall just as she was entering. She still wore ship fatigues and a loose cloak, blaster holstered on one side of her belt, lightsaber on the other. She blinked as she saw him, then smiled, looking wholly unsurprised. "You're not good at the 'wait there' thing, are you?"

"Nope," Luke said, and crossed the gap between them in two steps to engulf her in a hug.

Her hair was a little longer than when she'd left, and maybe she'd lost some weight – she had a bad habit of relying on ration bars and the Force when she was busy on missions – but her scent and her touch and her warmth were exactly right, expected and deeply longed for. Luke sighed, not for relief but for a sense of barely realised imbalance eased.

"Miss me?" Mara said, her voice muffled.

"A little." He caught a strand of her hair, met her gaze, and smiled. She put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, kissing him.

"Mm," Luke said when they parted. "How was the trip?"

"Could have been worse," she said. "I managed to track down Karrde's informant, well on his way to Hutt space. Turns out he had been selling a few people bad information. He should count himself lucky that it was Karrde who found him." She covered the beginning of a yawn. Luke lifted an eyebrow but didn't comment; she narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

"Anyway," she said. "What have you been doing? Finish that report for the Senate yet?"

"Still working on it," Luke said. "Now you're here, maybe you can take a look at the figures."

"The funding clause?"

"Mm."

Mara eyed him. "Have you been eating properly?"

"Sure."

"Hmph. Ithorian takeout when you remember, I bet."

Luke mentally reviewed the contents of their apartment's kitchenette. "Are you hungry?"

"I haven't eaten yet."

"There's the commissary…" Luke paused, picturing the friendly noise and hubbub of the eating area in the residences. "Or we can pick something up."

"Pick something up, I think," Mara said judiciously. "I don't feel like sharing you with the rest of the Temple tonight."

Luke put his arm around her, his lips to her ear. "I don't think I feel like being shared."

Mara laughed. "Good." She took his arm, pulled him toward one of the side corridors. "Let's take a walk. It's been months since I've been on Coruscant."

Bemused, Luke allowed himself to be led. "How is Karrde?" he asked.

"Good," Mara said, heading toward the door into the Temple gardens.

"He got that little supply problem sorted?"

"Oh, yes." The gravel of the path crunched under Mara's boots as she stepped out. Luke followed. "Shada took care of it, actually. She knows what she's doing, and she's good at it. Karrde had better hang on to her, or she'll get snatched up by someone else. I hear Booster was trying to entice her into his network."

Luke smiled. "Somehow I don't think Karrde will have too much difficulty holding onto Shada."

"Maybe not." Mara glanced at Luke, an eyebrow arched. "I don't think either of them quite realise it yet though."

"Really," Luke said. "Can't imagine what that's like."

Mara snorted softly.

They reached the side area of the garden, where leafy trees edged a domed area angled to provide a view across the city. Usually the garden would be lit at night, but Luke preferred it unlit; the darkness allowed the glow from the city to wash in, soft over the ferns and leaves and the cultivated grass. Through the view, Coruscant gleamed and twinkled, towers alight.

Mara breathed out. Luke watched her face, pale in the backwash of light from the city. There was a ghost of nostalgia there in her expression, a touch of something like sadness, but free of loss. Once, a decade and a half ago, he'd watched her stand and look over Coruscant with a faint bitterness in her eyes. The difference soothed him, for it meant healing. He had something to do with that growth, just as she'd helped him through his own difficult paths, but much of the struggle had been hers alone.

"I've been away too long," Mara murmured. Luke blinked, and she turned to him, smiling faintly. The cool wind whispering through the openings set her hair dancing around her face. Her eyes held a curious mixture of thoughtfulness, ease and resolve. "I've been thinking, Skywalker."

"Oh?" His tone was neutral, but he examined her face closely. Her emotions in the Force were a reflection of what he saw in her eyes.

"I'm thinking it's time Karrde did without me for good. Shada knows what she's doing."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Really," he said.

"Really," Mara echoed. She touched her fingertips to the edge of his cloak, tracing the line of the weave thoughtfully. "Think the academy could use another Jedi Knight?"

"With your skills and experience, most definitely." Luke caught her hand, his eyes on her face. "Are you sure? You won't be…"

"Bored?" Mara smiled with an edge of self-deprecation.

"Life does have a certain, ah, sedate pace on Yavin IV."

"I've been thinking about it a while." Mara looked toward the glittering view that dropped away beyond the transparisteel. "It's time for a new type of challenge."

Luke touched her shoulder gently. "You know that I understand the work you do with Karrde and Mirax and Shada. I miss you, but we can handle it."

"I know." Mara smiled again, briefly. "And I like that. But I'm sure. I want to be… home." She glanced at him, shrugged a little, and looked back toward the city, crossing her arms. Luke sensed a tingle of – not quite embarrassment, but a touch of prickly uncertainty, of awkwardness.

He smiled, and enveloped her in a hug. "Then be home," he said.

She made as if to fend him off, half-heartedly. "You're hopeless," she said.

"Hopelessly in love," he teased.

She rolled her eyes, took hold of his cloak, and tugged, pulling him closer. "Do you think you can put up with me full time?" she asked, still with the edge of a smile.

"Can you put up with me?" he rejoined.

She considered. "Without going crazy?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who burns dinner."

"That was once. And you were stupid enough to actually eat it."

"I didn't want to offend."

Mara snorted and put her arms around his shoulders. "You cook, I'll eat. Deal?"

"Fine with me." Luke touched her cheek, brushed back dancing strands of hair with his fingers. Her face softened, and he kissed her.

Mara had a tendency to sidestep emotional awkwardness; she'd always done it, from the first moment he'd met her. But in her kiss, and in that moment, there was no sidestepping; her kiss was purely Mara, rich with competence and scars and intensity, softness in shadow and strength in light. She was tired, he thought, and her fingers were warm, brushing beneath his cloak, over the lapel of his tunic where fabric met skin. Her hair touched his cheek as she leaned back, and he let his hand slide down, over soft travelling cloak, over flight tunic and sleeve.

"Welcome home," he said softly.

"Thank you," Mara said. Her eyes met his, and she smiled.

He took her hand, and together they turned down the path back through the gardens.

* * *


End file.
